Apr 18 On Heroes: Advice for Bernie Sanders Supporters in the Aftermath of the Democratic Primary

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton before the November Democratic debate. Image from NBCNews.com.

It's heartbreaking when our heroes disappoint us.

We feel betrayed, hurt, and crushed as if we were right there beside this person. It doesn't matter if this person is an athlete, musician, actor, actress, artist, author, or even politician. When we dedicate time into admiring someone we've never met, we become invested in that person and we expect them to live up to our admiration. We hold them is such high-esteem that we unrealistically expect them to be practically perfect in every way. Even if they slip up and do something wrong, we tend to brush it off as a one-time thing. If they slip up again, we laugh it off and note that everyone is human. However, there are cases when our hero reaches a point where he or she has become so far removed from the person we first idolized that we have no choice but to stop admiring this person. That becomes the time when we have to decide if we lose faith in just our hero or the entire system as a whole.

For myself, I endured this experience firsthand in the spring of 2011. As a fourth-year classroom teacher I had stumbled across Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea. The book was an account of Mortenson's incredible 1993 adventure that led him from a near-death mountaineering experience in the Himalayas to founding a school for girls in Pakistan. The promotion of girls' education then became Mortenson's calling and in 1996 he created a nonprofit called the Central Asia Institute which helped establish over 60 schools for girls in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson published Three Cups of Tea in 2006 and it became an inspirational best-seller. In 2009, Mortenson received the first of two consecutive Nobel Peace Prize nominations. As a teacher myself working to create a better world for those less fortunate, Greg Mortenson served as an inspirational role model.

And then, it all came crashing down. In April of 2011, 60 Minutes aired a special where fellow mountaineer and author Jon Krakauer provided evidence that Mortenson had fabricated many of the events that comprised the bulk of the narrative of Three Cups of Tea. In addition, Krakauer also reported that Mortenson had used the Central Asia Institute to enrich himself and promote his books without sharing royalties or speaking fees. This led to an investigation by the Montana attorney general's office as well as an eventual settlement where Mortenson repaid $1 million to the Central Asia Institute. He was stripped of his position as a voting board member but stayed on as an employee of the organization until retiring in November of 2015. A man who had once been a personal hero of mine had become reduced to a footnote of history, going out with no more than a whisper into the calm Montana night.

Two months from now, millions of Bernie Sanders supporters will become equally disappointed.

Because with Sanders, his supporters feel as if they have a special connection with him. They've been inspired by his vision of an America they wish to see. Sanders' candidacy truly has been a progressive wish list: Free universal healthcare, free college tuition, a nationwide $15 minimum wage, the breaking up of the Wall Street banks, and the legalization of marijuana just to name a few. If you were to create an ideal progressive platform, those are all things that the Sanders supporters, mostly White, affluent millennials, would strongly support. To actually hear a politician promote these policies and to come to believe that a "political revolution" would make these things possible has inspired Sanders' base, many of whom have felt disappointed over the past seven years. In their minds, the only reason we don't have all these policies already in place is simply because Bernie Sanders is not our president.

When this happens, Sanders supporters will face a similar choice as I did after my hero let me down: Do I simply give up my work or do I find other sources to inspire me? Despite being crushed by the truth about Greg Mortenson, I trekked on and continued to teach in low-income schools. Because even though one of my heroes had let me down, that didn't mean there weren't other people who could become equally inspiring. Rather than focusing on best-selling authors, I found inspiration from the people around me who were bending over backwards to help address inequality in an education system determined to maintain the status quo. Like Greg Mortenson, they wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. Unlike Greg Mortenson, they didn't need to personally inflate their own ego by exaggerating their good deeds. They simply went out and did it.

There will be a percentage of Sanders supporters who will simply tune out in two months, despite the evidence I've just provided. But those are the supporters who weren't going to vote anyway. However, for the bulk of Sanders supporters left, they need to realize that their irrational hatred for Hillary Clinton is simply that: irrational. These supporters, the majority of whom are millennials, have never not lived in a world where Hillary Clinton hasn't been smeared. If you hear something long enough you start to believe it. That's Nazi-type propaganda brought to you courtesy of today's Republican Party. It's the reason why Sanders supporters protest down-ballot fundraisers for Democratic candidates: because they simply want to believe that Hillary is hoarding the money for herself rather than helping to elect a Democratic congress. But like America saw in the Brooklyn debate, even Bernie Sanders himself could not give a specific example as to how Hillary Clinton has been corrupted by Wall Street. Republicans have been saying the same thing for twenty-five years and have accused her of being corrupt. And just like Bernie Sanders saw firsthand, there simply is no evidence to back that up.

So for Bernie Sanders supporters reading this, consider what will be at stake come the fall: a presidency, the ability to flip the Senate and make gains in the House, and the ability to alter the makeup of the Supreme Court for a generation. If you're one of the 20 million of Americans who has benefitted from the Affordable Care Act, you'll vote for Hillary Clinton. If you're a woman who thinks health care decisions should only be between you and your doctor, you'll vote for Hillary Clinton. If you're a worker who enjoys the rights provided to you by your union, you'll vote for Hillary Clinton. If you're a member of the LGBT community and you don't think states should be able to deny you services based on who you love, you'll vote for Hillary Clinton. If you're a parent with a son who registered for selective service and you don't want to see your child shipped overseas in another military quagmire, you'll vote for Hillary Clinton. If you believe that Muslim-Americans are just as Americans as you or me, you'll vote for Hillary Clinton. If you believe that Latino immigrants who have lived here their entire lives deserve an opportunity to come out of the shadows and have a clear pass to citizenship, you'll vote for Hillary Clinton. If you believe that African-American lives matter and that we need to take serious steps to address systemic racism, you'll vote for Hillary Clinton. And if you believe in a world where climate change is actually happening and is a threat to humankind, you'll vote for Hillary Clinton.

She might not be your personal hero. You might have to vote for her holding your nose, confessing your sin, cursing her name, flicking off your ballot, or doing whatever else you have to do to swallow your pride and do the right thing. But know this: she is a hero to many. She's a hero to the parents to eight million children who received health insurance thanks to her efforts. She's a hero to women lawyers everywhere for being named one of the top 100 lawyers in the country on two separate occasions and proving that women could succeed in a man's world. She's a hero to those in the civil rights movement for her undercover work to ensure school integration was properly occurring in Alabama. She's a hero to those who saw her use her role as First Lady to promote public policy, going much further than any previous First Lady ever had. She's a hero to every successful woman who at one point has been told that the way she appeared, the clothes she wore, the inflexions in her voice, or facial expressions she made simply were "unbecoming" of a true professional. Despite all that, she still endures constant criticism, lies, smears, sexism, and misogyny that no presidential candidate has ever had to endure. Through it all she has remained standing and in the process has become a hero to millions of Americans like myself.